Tag Archives: Amazon Kindle

Amazon.com on Thursday said it limited new Prime membership signups during peak periods in order to protect current member orders from the surge in new memberships.

Amazon said more than 1 million customers became new Amazon Prime subscribers in the third week of December.

Amazon Prime is a membership program that offers unlimited free two-day shipping on certain products for $79 a year. Amazon set a record on orders globally, as well, with more than 36.8 million items ordered on Cyber Monday, or 426 items per second, alone.

The news comes as shipping giants United Parcel Service and FedExstruggled—and in some cases failed—to get packages delivered before Christmas. The delays were blamed on poor weather earlier this week, as well as overloaded systems. The holiday shopping period this year was shorter than usual, more buying was done online and Americans’ tendency to wait until the last possible second to shop probably didn’t help either.

Neither company said how many packages were delayed, but noted it was a small share of overall holiday shipments.

Responding to the delivery delays, Amazon issued a statement Thursday: “Amazon fulfillment centers processed and tendered customer orders to delivery carriers on time for holiday delivery. We are reviewing the performance of the delivery carriers.” The retailer also said it will refund any shipping charges associated with impacted shipments, and offer a $20 gift card to customers who did not receive packages on time.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that Amazon limited new Prime membership signups during peak periods in order to protect current member orders from the surge in new memberships. It was also clarified to show that Amazon set a record on orders globally.

Just because you’re running an internet business and not meeting your customers face to face, it doesn’t mean good service is unimportant. On the contrary, with so little to distinguish between so many faceless online operators, giving your customers something positive to remember you by is absolutely essential. But what can you do to make sure your customers recommend rather than forget you? Here are five ideas to give your business a boost!

1. Make sure they know what they’re getting

Buying online is not the same as buying in a shop: you can’t pick the item up, read the box, check the size or colour or ask the sales assistant for advice. Unless it’s a widely available product which people can find out about elsewhere, you’re going to be the only source of information they have. And, of course, if they have to go looking for information elsewhere, they’re just as likely to buy elsewhere – probably more so! Last but not least, make the description accurate, because if your customers don’t get what they’re expecting, they’ll just return the item. Then you really will be out of pocket, as you’ll not only have to refund the cost of their purchase, but you’ll still have to pay delivery charges both ways.

2. Offer them an incentive

People like to feel they’re getting a bargain – check the prices of your competitors and make sure you’re competitive; offer quantity discounts to encourage people to spend more; you could even give away a free gift with every order – it doesn’t have to be an expensive one, but it’s the sort of thing people remember!

3. Keep them informed

Make sure people know the status of their order at each stage of the process. Send an email to confirm you’ve received it, with an estimate of when you’re likely to dispatch their purchase. Send another email when you do dispatch, so they’ll know when it’s likely to get to them, also telling them whether they’ll need to be at home to sign for it.

4. Deliver to them safely and on time

You may not be making the actual delivery yourself, but you’ll still be held responsible if it goes wrong. Find a reliable courier that you can trust to make your deliveries on time and to treat your goods with respect. Good quality packaging materials are also important – even the most careful courier can’t guard against every eventuality. Going for the cheapest option in either case will nearly always be a false economy, because the money you’ve saved will soon be dwarfed by the lost sales and replacement costs incurred by a lost or damaged delivery.

5. Ask them to provide feedback

There are many places where your customers can tell the world about the service you’ve provided. If you’re selling on Amazon, for instance, you’ll probably already know what a positive effect a good rating can have on your sales. If you get a bad review, don’t ignore it – a well-handled complaint can make as good an impression as a perfect transaction, because it shows you care what your customers think. Other sites like Trustpilot are also good for generating positive word of mouth about your business, while social media sites allow you to engage with customers and let them know about new products and special offers.

About the Author: Dave Smith is lead copywriter and blogger at Davpack packaging suppliers. At the time of writing, Davpack has a lifetime rating of 96% on Amazon and a 97% rating on Trustpilot.

Leaders are very important to the success of a business, as they are the ones who inspire others, drive movement forward and provide the company with a goal. However, a leader with a larger than life ego can actually be a detriment to a company, holding it back and causing problems rather than encouraging success.

There is a huge difference between ego and confidence. Self-confidence is an essential trait in a strong leader as they need to be able to believe in themselves and confidently stride towards their dreams. Rather than the calm self-assuredness that confidence brings, a big ego manifests itself in pride, boastfulness, self-centeredness and an inability to admit when one is wrong.

Here are a few reasons why having a big ego is not a very good trait in a successful leader.

Leaders Need to Be Able to Admit When they are Wrong

Even though they might be put in charge because they have the most education or experience, leaders are not always right. In fact, sometimes they can make big mistakes, totally misjudge situations or get things completely wrong. This is nothing to be ashamed about, after all everyone is human and will make a mistake once in a while.

However, sometimes big leaders are afraid to admit that they have got it wrong. They are so unwilling to show any weaknesses that they will follow through with things even though all signs are indicating that they have got it wrong. They will lead their company towards disaster while pretending that they are doing the right thing, rather than admitting their blunder and asking for help.

A good leader should never let their own ego get in the way of realising when they are making a mistake. A confident leader is never afraid of confessing to a mistake and taking a new approach and if this is done with grace it will make your employees respect you even more.

Leaders Need to Be Able To Let the Achievements of Others Shine

Another trait of someone with a big ego is that they are quick to snap up all the credit when it comes to the group’s accomplishments. You’ve probably seen it before, the team leader whose team puts in plenty of effort to achieve something and then when it comes time to receive accolades, he speaks like he did all of the work himself. These are also the types of people who are likely to choose team members who are less competent than themselves because their primary motivation is making themselves look good. In the thinking of an egotistical person, another person’s success means that they have failed so they will feel better about themselves when others achieve and earn less.

A great leader needs to be able to step out of the spotlight and be gratified by the achievements of others. They must realise that they cannot accomplish or control everything, so they need to invest in fantastic team members and value their contribution to the organisation. Good leaders will know how to let another employee shine.

One of the most important roles of a leader is to be able to make each and every person working with them feel like they are valued and appreciated. They need to create a positive and optimistic working environment which makes employees feel engaged and motivated.

Unfortunately, a leader with a big ego will be too focused on themselves to make this happen. The people working with them will become increasingly fed up with their egotistical behaviour and will not be inspired to do their best. They might even cause conflict in the workplace, which further distracts people from doing a good job at work.

Instead of a big leader with an even bigger ego, it is better to have someone who does not deny reality even when it is negative and is able to admit their own mistakes. They will be able to help people get through difficult times, let the achievements of others shine and encourage everyone that they work with to put their best performance in. You will be amazed at the different that a calm and confident leader without a big ego can make on your organisation.

Having a big ego can really get in the way of providing excellent leadership and here are some of the reasons why. To find out more about our leadership programs, visit Cirrus today.

In a team-oriented environment, workers contribute to the overall success of the organization. They work with fellow members of the organization to produce these results. Even though they have a specific job function and belong to a specific department, people on a team are unified with other organization members to accomplish big picture objectives.

There are a lot of people in business who want their employees to work wholeheartedly together as a team, but struggle with team building execution. Trying to have people come together as a group with a common goal and strive to achieve it can be very challenging. Team building is not as easy as you think, and the workers we manage are sometime not as apt to join and collaborate with a team as we would hope.

Benefits of Teamwork

We all inherently understand the benefits of teamwork. A group of skilled individuals putting all their brainpower together to work for an innovative and quick solution to a problem is excellent. The sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts.

When the workload is shared throughout the group, dealing with pressure and stress is much easier for everyone, usually making the final product much better than if if was done individually. I’ve learned in business that if you want to get something done on time put together a crack team of motivated people to take it down.

Teamwork is not always easy

Teamwork is not always easy to implement. Sure the benefits of teamwork can easily be explained, but actually making it work within a group is much different. From an early age we were set on the path of individualism. Think about going to school, you did not go through school as a group. You participated in school with peers, however you worked individually to achieve your test scores.

Of course many of us participated in team sports or group projects in classes, but the majority of our social experience through our childhood and young adulthood was all centered around being an individual. When we shift from school into the workplace, and employers want to implement a strong culture of teamwork and collaboration in the workplace, it’s hard for people to adjust to the new collaborative style.

Japan is an example of a culture which socializes it’s individuals to be more of a cohesive team rather than a lone individual. There are many metaphors which explain the Japanese mindset of community and teamwork but one that sticks out is the weak link in the chain metaphor. I had a Japanese Businessmen explain this to me some time ago.

He told me that his company, and more specifically the group within his company that he was a part of, was like a chain. Together they were strong and could weather any storm, but if there was a defect in the chain then the whole apparatus became worthless. Everyone worked hard to not be that weak link.

Upon completion of college, when the Japanese worker is introduced to a company, they are completely indoctrinated as a member of the company. They actually go to an extended boot camp to learn everything about the company and officially become a member. This process further builds on the teamwork mindset that is so special in Japan.

The only western groups that I can associate the same mentality with is the military. The military goes to boot camp together and is completely engrossed and indoctrinated as a member of a larger whole. Japanese workers also go to a quasi Boot Camp to endure the same type of mental and physical indoctrination for the sake of their prospective company.

In the west, we don’t do anything of the sort. When is the last time you sent your new hires to a four-week intensive boot camp to learn the ins and outs of your company? Sure we may send our employees to a weekend team building seminar, but that’s nothing like the team building training courses for joining a Japanese corporation.

I’m trying to illustrate, with this example, that teamwork is not an inherently God given trade. It’s a learned behavior that we can teach employees of the company to exemplify. We may not go to the extent of military or Japanese-style boot camp, but we can take away some strategies to make our teams better.

Teamwork Success

Regardless of how individualistic and nonconformist our mentality is we can still build great teams in our companies. Every team needs a leader. The duties and expectations of the team also need to be clearly defined. Everyone’s going to have different and unique talents, and they should be utilized to the fullest extent for the betterment of the team. Communication must be open and honest.

The most important aspect of achieving great teamwork success in my humble opinion, is withholding judgment of the teams performance until after the project is completed. If a team wins the NBA championships with a buzzer beater shot they still win right? It’s not right to write them off as losers 10 seconds before the game is over just because they are a few points down. On the same token, don’t write your team off before the buzzer ends just because everything isn’t going perfectly.

Team members deserve regular and honest positive reinforcement. When they achieve success they deserve rewards. Rewarding team members for effectively managing their tasks and going above and beyond what’s expected is a good habit to practice. It also cultivates a culture of teamwork within the organization.

About the Author:Robert Cordray is a freelance writer and expert in business and finances. He has received many accolades for his work in teaching methods of reducing employee turnover.

With overheads high and businesses seeking to save money on any and all fronts, the idea of installing a complete additional country in the Facilities Management cupboard may seem like an attractive concept. However the options for businesses needing to expand are somewhat limited. Moving premises is all very well, but the cost, inconvenience and disruption to the actual day to day running of the firm make it impractical in many cases. However, installing a mezzanine floor can offer considerable advantages without the inconvenience of removal expenses – or goblins, witches and great big annoying lions messing around with the photocopier. A mezzanine floor is normally a semi-permanent additional floor, which in a commercial or retail setting can be used for extending the floor space of a building for a number of purposes.

Double Capacity, Half the Hassle

Retail businesses have faced some challenging times recently with a number of famous High Street names going online or, failing that, into administration. For those that have bravely remained on the High Street itself, the likelihood of upgrading to newer bigger premises is pretty remote. A mezzanine floor can offer additional retail space, without the costs associated with a move or the danger of losing customers during a change of address. Existing space can be freed up, or new areas for retail developed, allowing you to expand or add to your range of goods.

In industrial premises, or warehousing premises, a mezzanine floor is one of the most commonly used tricks to keep rental low and maximise the use of space. At a tiny percentage of the cost of moving, a mezzanine can be installed quickly. Most mezzanine floor suppliers and installers offer systems that can be installed at high speed, minimising the disruption to your business activities. By their nature a mezzanine is normally self-supporting and does not require large, disruptive and inconvenient levels of structural alteration.

For mixed use premises where an office space needs to be extended (or even created) a mezzanine offers the perfect solution. For a rapidly growing firm, which does not want to risk the additional outlay on new premises, a mezzanine can again offer a quick turn around on a doubling of space. This can make your existing office space far more flexible, allowing for expansion in staff numbers during seasonal peaks in business.

In most cases a mezzanine floor will be designed for your building – making it a highly tailored solution. Mezzanine floor suppliers can create a range of standard sized sections which can be used to create a bespoke solution for your specific building and to suit the use of the new floor. In terms of planning regulations there are no requirements when it comes to fitting a new mezzanine structure, but compliance with Building Regulations (and in some cases fire regulations) will be necessary. Again, these factors can normally be dealt with by mezzanine floor suppliers and where building and fire regulations need to be met suppliers will normally have an off-the-shelf solution to hand. In terms of costs most suppliers will offer a range of options, but the price is rarely above £120 per square meter. In general, industry experts suggest that the cost of a mezzanine is around 80 per cent cheaper than moving premises and this doesn’t take into consideration the associated disruption and potential loss of business on the way.

You can’t take it with you

Fair point, if we’re talking about your worldly wealth on that last great journey. However, when it comes to moving business premises it’s possible that you could take your mezzanine with you. The mostly likely bar to this easy option is simply that your mezzanine is likely to be designed with your existing premises in mind. A bespoke design for your mezzanine will mean that it may not fit easily into the new premises, but if you’ve planned carefully then there’s no reason why you couldn’t take your additional space with you. The cost of moving the structure may seem expensive, but as with the original installation, it could well be cheaper than buying or renting the extra space.

For expanding businesses the inconvenience of moving premises can often be removed by installing a mezzanine floor. Mezzanine floor suppliers offer a range of tailored solutions to suit most businesses and can help create the additional space for your business to grow.

Imagine Amazon sending you business leads regularly and even paying you to do so. Why would they do it?
“Amazon is desperate for reading material and you can publish your content for free as Kindle books,” says V. Michael Santoro, a managing partner with John S. Rizzo of Globe On-Demand, an internet technology company. The two are also the co-authors of, “Niche Dominance: Creating Order out of your Digital Marketing Chaos,” (www.NicheDominance.com).
“The twist is to use them as a generation system for sales leads.”
The audience is huge – Kindle is no longer just for people who purchase Kindle tablets. Amazon has also written Kindle Reader applications for every major smartphone, tablet, and computer including the Android phone or tablet, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows 8 PC or tablet, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7, Santoro says.
“Most businesses hesitate to use Kindle to generate sales leads because they think they need to write an actual book,” says Rizzo, “But that’s not true. You can write and publish short reports — as long as the content is original, of high quality and does not violate its Terms of Service (TOS), Amazon will publish your material.”
The key is to include a compelling free offer with a strong call to action and a link to a lead capture page – the page on your website where people can sign up for more information, special offers, your newsletter, etc.
And Amazon will even help market your book – for free!
When a new Kindle book is approved and published, Amazon will:
• Feature it in their new releases section.
• Email their customer base announcing it to those who have previously purchased a Kindle book in that genre.
• Offer the Kindle KDP Select Program for ongoing free promotion.
• Allow customers to highlight, make notes, and share your book’s content via Twitter and other social networks.
“By enrolling in the free Kindle KDP Select Program, you give Amazon exclusivity on a renewable 90-day basis,” Santoro says. “This program allows their readers to borrow your book from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and when they do, Amazon pays you a royalty, as well as for book sales. However, the real benefit is that Amazon provides five days per quarter to give your book away for free.”
Why give your Kindle book away for free?
“Because, as a lead generation system, you want as many individuals as possible to download your Kindle book and visit your lead capture page, Santoro explains. Additionally, Amazon views each book download as a vote and rewards your book with higher page ranking. The more downloads, the better the chance of an Amazon Page 1 placement.
To create your Kindle report:
• Use Amazon to determine what current Kindle books or paperbacks are published about your topic.
• Decide what information will be helpful to your potential customers. Make sure it is original and offers value. Avoid information that is easily found on the Internet.
• Create your report in Microsoft Word and include images if appropriate.
• Include your call to action – a message that prompts readers to visit your website — and link to your website’s lead capture page.
• Create a cover graphic.
Publishing on Kindle is fairly simple:
• Go to http://kdp.amazon.com and sign up for a free Kindle account.
• Watch the “How To” Kindle publishing video.
• Fill out the Amazon Author Page to track your statistics.
• Reference the book on your website and link to your Amazon book page.
• Announce it on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter accounts.
“The goal is not to sell books, but rather to generate leads from Amazon’s huge customer base,” Rizzo says. An additional benefit is that you will differentiate yourself from the competition by being a published author. If your content is excellent and helpful, you will also build trust which will help to increase sales from these new leads.
About John S. Rizzo & V. Michael Santoro
John S. Rizzo obtained his bachelor’s degree in business administration and spent three years as a consultant for Amazon’s publishing group. He has assisted several businesses with digital marketing strategy and has served in leadership positions for multiple initiatives for the Charleston, S.C., Chamber of Commerce.
V. Michael Santoro has more than 10 years in the digital marketing field. His prior experience includes international senior marketing positions in technology fields. He has a master’s degree and was an adjunct professor with the computer science department of Western Connecticut State University.

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